That Mumbai has a severe space crunch is well known, but in Santacruz, the Slum Rehabilitation Authority is actually constructing five buildings on a road!
What’s more, it is in clear defiance of a Bombay high court order banning any sort of construction on the 100-foot-wide DP Road in Daulatnagar, Santa Cruz (W).
In its order of October 12, 2001, on the writ petition filed by the Relief Road Housing Societies Association in 1999, HC ordered the state to remove all encroachments from DP Road and footpaths in the Daulatnagar area and included the flanks and entire width of the road as shown in the development plans. The order said no further encroachment should reappear on plots and areas from where they have already been removed.
The 2001 order also states, “If the court sees that the areas being cleared of encroachments have been used by encroachers, the officer of the police station under whose jurisdiction the area falls, shall be held responsible.” DNA is in possession of the copy of the order.
Sources allege that under the guise of an SRA scheme, open saleable buildings are being constructed for the benefit of the builders by SRA.The unauthorised under-construction buildings on DP Road are being developed by HDIL and Pioneers Ltd.
Incidentally, in response to the petition filed by Relief Road Association in 2002, SRA submitted its layout plan of the Daulat Nagar area in the Supreme Court in September 2002 and in the high court in August 2009, where no constructions were shown on the 100-foot-wide area in Daulat Nagar. The matter is pending in court.
When S S Zende, CEO, SRA, was asked about whether permissions were granted by SRA for this project, he said, “I’ll inquire into the matter in two days.”
When DNA emailed queries to Sarang Wadhawan, managing director, HDIL, he asked for a day to reply. HDIL has still not furnished replies and has remained unavailable for comment.
Despite several attempts, Pioneer Ltd could not be contacted for their version.
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